A sweet collection of short stories to lighten and inspire even the saddest soul.

Not a Perfect Fit is a collection of stories that are laugh-out-loud funny one minute and thought-provoking the next. Stories range from Schmidt’s experience living off-grid as the only English woman in an Amish neighborhood to family trips that are remarkably similar to National Lampoon’s Vacation. Through it all, she manages to rise above the many challenges she faces—inspiring and entertaining her audience along the way. Filled with animal antics, gratitude, mishaps, and madcap adventures, Not a Perfect Fit’s tell-all, single-girl-gone-country, down-home stories give readers permission to laugh and cry—and, most important, to carry on.

Captain James Steele is duty bound to capture the privateer Scarlet Night and bring her rebellious crew to England to hang. Then he will leave his majesty’s service, make an upstanding marriage, and join the landed gentry. But the winds of fate are blowing the straitlaced commander utterly off course.

Once aboard, James comes face to face with a pirate boy who is in reality fierce, desperate—and gorgeous—Samantha Christian, on the run from a sadistic Virginia plantation owner. With her identity unbound, the good captain dutifully takes her under his personal command, whereupon decorum goes out the porthole. But while his heart is lost to Samantha by the time they reach England, her noose still awaits. Now James’s sense of duty will be severely tested. As for Samantha, she has a plan, and a duty, of her own . . .

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Award Winning historical fiction sure to fascinate and get you thinking about your own life in a turbulent world.

WINNER: 2015 INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARD, HISTORICAL FICTION GOLD MEDAL:

2014 INDEPENDENT PUBLISHER BOOK AWARD, HISTORICAL FICTION

November, 1941. War and genocide have plunged Europe into darkness. Then, a ray of sunlight: whispers of Aron Beckman, an extraordinary young Jewish musician in Poland who plays the harp that belonged to King David himself. They say that Aron has formed a trio with two fellow prodigies, and that the music is like nothing ever heard before. That it is powerful. That it moves people to do great things. That it can bring the dead back to life. They say the musicians can lift the darkness. And that they are on their way. “This breathtaking novel, a musical story set against the backdrop of the Holocaust, filled with wonder and surprises…will stay with you long after you’ve read the last page. Blumenthal, a remarkably talented craftsman, hits all the right notes.” —Ari L. Goldman, author of The Search for God at Harvard, The Late Starters Orchestra